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Happy Sunday!

Thanks again for taking the time to write to me. I’m really enjoying reading and replying to your emails. Just so you know, you can write multiple times, anytime you want. I shouldn’t have to request you.

You can talk about anything, ask any question, or discuss any idea. I will definitely read your email, and I will definitely reply to you. Reply to this email or write to hellocoffeeandjunk@gmail.com. I look forward to hear from you.

Now is the time for your weekly dose of multidisciplinary reading to upgrade your thinking and decision making skills. And if you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here.

📝 What I Wrote

In the last two editions of Sunday Wisdom, I wrote about living deliberately and digital declutter—the two parts of the same idea. Today I’m going to talk about the importance of friction in your way.

Healthy Friction: When You Want Something, All The Universe Conspires Against You

As a kid, whenever I wanted something for myself, my father used to turn it into a challenge. This was his way of putting a “healthy friction” in my way to test my conviction—do I really want it? How much do I want it? How hard am I willing to work for it?

As I grew up I started to realise that even the world around us creates a healthy about of friction for us—one doesn’t get anything simply by asking. The best part: it makes living all the more fun.

Once you are done reading, I would love to hear what you think about it. If you agree and want to add to it, I’m all ears. If you disagree, I look forward to hear your point of view. We can have collective growth only through a collective exchange of dialogues and ideas. Therefore, do share your thoughts in the comments.

💡 Little Bits of Wisdom

Failure is far more closer to invention than you think. To invent you have to experiment. If you know in advance whether it’s going to work, it’s really not an experiment. In the true spirit of experimentation, you’ll have to try out multiple things, and a bunch of them are going to fail. That’s the only way it works.

📑 I Enjoyed Reading

68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice — “It’s my birthday. I’m 68. I feel like pulling up a rocking chair and dispensing advice to the young ‘uns. Here are 68 pithy bits of unsolicited advice which I offer as my birthday present to all of you.”

Meet The Rising Stars of India’s Video Apps — “For better or worse, these apps hold up both a mirror and a megaphone to India’s cultural divisions. There are now lower-caste influencers on TikTok whose newfound voices have placed targets on their backs.”

How The Biggest Consumer Apps Got Their First 1,000 Users — “Considering every startup confronts this question at some point, I was surprised by how little has been written about it. Particularly anything actionable. So I decided to do my own digging. I spent the past month personally reaching out to founders, scouring interviews, and tapping the Twitterverse.”

The Real Lord of The Flies — “For centuries western culture has been permeated by the idea that humans are selfish creatures. That cynical image of humanity has been proclaimed in films and novels, history books and scientific research. But in the last 20 years, something extraordinary has happened.”

Pinduoduo and The Rise of Social E-Commerce — “Social shopping may seem like a new concept, but the reality is that in the physical world, shopping is meant to be “interactive and fun” and purchases are regularly informed by friends and family.”

The list of all the articles I’ve written can be found here. And the past three editions of Sunday Wisdom are here: 37, 36, and 35.

📹 I Enjoyed Watching

Mumbai During Lockdown — I live in Mumbai. I love Mumbai, so naturally I’m a bit biased, but this video is indeed meditative. It also capture some of my favourite places. “The COVID-19 pandemic has restricted everyone to their houses, practising social distancing and Mumbai’s super busy and fast life has come to a standstill overnight. This videos shows you unseen, scenic views of Bombay in a time unlike no other.”

Nurturing Mental Health (Satyamev Jayate) — “Most of us don’t know that 1 out of 4 people in India suffer from a diagnosable mental illness and that all of us are vulnerable to it with busier and faster-paced lives.”

Gaming Can Make a Better World — “Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how.”

10 Commandments for Critical Thinking — “Critical thinking means being able to think for yourself; to ask what is really going on in the world; to see through others’ efforts to manipulate you. It’s also a set of skills that can be taught and practised.”

🤔 Worth Thinking About

Why make yourself miserable saying things like, “Why do we have such bad luck? What has God done to us? What have we done to deserve this?”—all of which, if you understand reality and take it completely into your heart, are irrelevant and unsolvable. They are just things that nobody can know. Your situation is just an accident of life.

As always, if you’re enjoying Sunday Wisdom, I’d love it if you shared it with a friend or two. You can send them here to sign up. I try to make it one of the best emails you get every Sunday, and I hope you’re enjoying it.

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